Serious bodily injury can occur to a driver or any passenger of a car if the occupant of the car is not wearing a seat belt in a car accident in the state of Oregon.

Anytime an occupant of a car in the state of Oregon is injured while not wearing a seat belt there may later be a reduction of the amount the injury victim gets by their percentage of liability for not wearing their seat belt. Oregon law used to impose a harsh 15% reduction of damages one recovers upon showing of proof of seatbelt non use. While Oregon law on seat belt use is now more lenient a proper post collision investigation is ever more important as I have seen many cases where there are issues about whether the injury victim was wearing a seat belt or not. It is common for police and ambulance responders to just get the facts wrong as to whether or not a person was belted correctly. Perhaps one reason for post crash confusion about seat belt use or non-use is the high confusion level following a crash.

While the buckle up law remains on the books the use or non-use of seat belts is something a skilled injury lawyer must always address in their injury case investigation. Current Oregon law allows up to a 5% reduction on damages for non seat belt use. An important argument on any seat belt use case would be whether or not the reduction is relevant based upon what damage the non-use of the seat belt had on the accident victim. Like any good lawyer pitted against another lawyer there always room for argument.

This entry was posted on Friday, August 31st, 2007 at 2:23 pm and is filed under Seat Belt Laws. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.